Zelda Producer Aonuma Explains How Renting Items Works In A Link Between Worlds

Yesterday, during a Nintendo Direct presentation, Nintendo revealed that The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds will allow players to tackle dungeons in an order of their choosing. In order to allow for this to be possible, instead of finding specific items before the dungeons you’re supposed to use them in, you’ll be able to rent (or buy) most of the game’s items from an item shop early on in the game.

Having access to different items in no particular order will enable you to tackle dungeons as you see fit and experiment with using different items in different places. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma explains this further in a post on Miiverse.

“In Ravio’s shop, each of the items you can use in the game are on display from the beginning,” Aonuma confirms. He then goes on to elaborate: “The rental period for each item is unlimited, so you can rent them for as long as you’d like, but if Link falls during his adventure and it’s game over, the items will be returned to the shop. “

Aonuma continues, “If you want to continue playing, you’ll have to rent them again. After a while, you can eventually purchase the items, and once you do, you’ll be able to keep using them even if you game over. This may seem similar to the three day system in Majora’s Mask where all your items are lost when you reach the end of the third day, but you’ll be able to rent every item from the beginning if you can afford it.”

“So unlike past Zelda games, you won’t run into a scenario where you can’t do something because you need a certain item that won’t be available until later. I hope all of you will experiment with many different items and play as you like.”

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds will be available on November 22nd.